Application for We're Still Here

[prodigalhairess]

PLAYER INFO.
NAME: Owl
PREFERRED PRONOUNS: She/Her
ARE YOU OVER 18? Yes
CONTACT: OwlKnight
CURRENT CHARACTERS: n/a

CHARACTER INFO.
NAME: Princess Rapunzel of Corona
CANON: Tangled: The Series
CANON POINT: post-series
AGE: 20
GENDER: Female

HISTORY: Rapunzel @ Disney Wiki

APPEARANCE: Reference!

ABILITIES: Rapunzel was once gifted with incredible, magical abilities; the ability to heal the most grievous injuries, to return youth to the aging, and even bring people back to life, with just a few lines of song. She eventually learned more about this power - the power of the Sundrop, a strange magical force from beyond the stars - and could do even more with her magic, from using her indestructible hair as a shield or summoning great waves of magical energy, to things much more sinister, like sucking the life out of everything (and everyone) nearby. Rapunzel was a powerful force with her magic, but as she's from a point in time after her magic finally left her, she will no longer have her healing abilities, indestructible long hair, or anything else related to the Sundrop.

So what's left? Still a very sturdy princess! Rapunzel is a quick thinker when it comes to a fight, and is quick to pick up a frying pan and jump in swinging to protect her friends. She's taken Cass's lessons on battle to heart, and has learned to use her opponent's strengths against them, and often comes out on top with her quick thinking as much as she does with her magical abilities. In the more mundane sense, Rapunzel has a good eye for detail, both as an artist and in terms of observation; she was able to solve the mystery of a local shop that had been ransacked just through circumstantial clues, saving one of her pub thug friends from being imprisoned in the process.

SUITABILITY: Though Rapunzel is your typical pretty disney princess, she's been through... a lot. The woman she thought was her mother for eighteen years gaslit her and emotionally manipulated her to leave her completely reliant on her with very little will to fight back. Rapunzel struggles with the resulting emotional damage of Gothel's abuse, and it's an overarching plot thread in the series that she learns how to really process emotions - hers and others. She's also seen terrible things; her best friend's hand crippled and decayed because of Rapunzel, her loved ones nearly killed several times before her, and the struggle of processing Cassandra's betrayal. She even fought a demon with one of the strongest united powers in the universe! She's been through all sorts of horrors and strains, but Rapunzel keeps on moving forward, so the topics that pop up in the game won't be enough to break her.

PERSONALITY.

● Your character has a chance to undo a terrible mistake, but in doing so, there could be unintended consequences for everyone they know. Is it worth the risk? Or should the dead stay dead?

Before the end of her adventures, Rapunzel would have probably agreed to such an offer. Hell, she almost did at one point; when faced with being trapped in a dream world, she was very nearly lost to it because of the things it offered. While initially she fought hard against the temptations it offered - she wasn't ready to marry Eugene yet, she didn't want to settle down and pass up on the adventures that still waited beyond Corona's walls - it was one of her biggest regrets that almost let her be lost in the dream world. See, Rapunzel isn't one who normally lets regrets weigh her down. She may not air them out right away, but when they start becoming problems, she'll air them out to try and move that weight off her shoulders. But it's hard, when people are mad at you and make it hard to approach them. Because of her years of abuse at Gothel's hands, Rapunzel isn't really... good at confrontation, and it takes her being forced to sit back and watch other people in the various incidents throughout season 3 that help her learn how to really deal with things in a healthier way. But regrets... her biggest regret since venturing outside of Corona's walls was most definitely the incident that led to Cassandra's hand being crippled and a rift forming between her and her best friend, and it was the chance to erase that that caused her to nearly be trapped permanently in the dream world.

Being caught in a dream sounds nice, but... she had a duty, going beyond the walls. She had to follow her destiny to stop the spread of the black rocks. And still, she was willing to put that aside, for a world where everyone she loves could be happy. Selfish? A bit, yes. But she wanted her friends and family to be happy as much as she herself wanted to be, so there's still a grain of goodness among it.

● If your character had the option to permanently lose the ability to feel certain negative emotions like fear or grief, or permanently forget certain memories, would they take it? What if they will never know that something has been taken from them? Does loss only matter if it's known what's missing?

Rapunzel is someone who has been shaped by her experiences, both positive and negative. To give all of that up... it would make Rapunzel less complete than how she is now. That isn't to say there wouldn't be a desire to get rid of bad or hurtful memories - as mentioned above, she was absolutely tempted by a perfect happy world despite the risks it posed to reality - but she still doesn't want to just throw away all of her old memories. As she moves forward, Rapunzel grows more open about bad-talking Gothel, admitting to herself as much as she admits to Cassandra that Gothel was a vain woman who only cared about herself... and yet, Rapunzel cried as she watched the destruction of her tower. Rapunzel sees the good in her memories as much as the bad at the root of them, so to take them away would take some things she treasured away as well.

The same can be said for emotions as well. Rapunzel strives to be happy and optimistic all the time, and she wishes many times that she wishes she could stay in the "good times", and ignore the harsh realities around them. Her first breakdown in her journey beyond the walls results in her and Cass being turned into birds and captured, and when Cass admonishes her for being irresponsible, Rapunzel acknowledges that she is... because she's scared. She tries to run from the harsh realities surrounding her responsibilities, because all she wants is to be happy. But she also doesn't run from them for long; she stands up to push back against the dark, and doesn't stop until she succeeds.

So no, she wouldn't want to just erase those bad feelings or bad memories. Move past them, yes, of course. She'd never want to dwell too long on those things. But good or bad, they're still experiences for her, and she can't just ignore them.


● Could your character ever forgive themselves for something morally wrong that they've done? No matter how much time has passed? No matter how much penitence has been done? Is being sorry enough to be a good person?

Being sorry is certainly enough to be a good person, at least in Rapunzel's eyes. You have to mean it, yes, but she takes apologies very well, and if the person seems genuine, she'll try her best to look past any transgressions they may have cast against her. She was able to forgive Varian for his attempted murder of her friends and family and attempted takeover of Corona because he did his best to help her fix the problems he caused during the latter, and she happily embraced Cassandra as a friend again when Cass tearfully broke down and apologized for everything she'd done. Rapunzel believes deeply in redemption for people who she thinks aren't too far gone; she doesn't let them walk all over her and she'll push back if she has to, but she'll still do her absolute best to help, because so many people who lash out in anger or despair just need someone to reach a hand out to them. If she doesn't... who's to say that anyone else will?

As for herself... while Rapunzel has never done anything really morally wrong, she's definitely wronged others. And she carries that guilt around for longer than she lets on; she's so terrified of doing the wrong thing, of letting everyone down or letting her family or her kingdom down, that she fights hard to always do the right thing. Rapunzel does her best to be a good person, but... sometimes it's hard, when she's confronted with the reality of the outside world.



● Your character has a secret they have been sworn to, but revealing this secret could save the lives of countless others. Is it worth breaking the promise to save others, or is betrayal never justifiable?

Rapunzel is.... somewhat complicated when it comes to secrets. Rapunzel takes secrets and promises very seriously; she says that when she makes a promise, she doesn't break it. Ever. And in some cases, that's true! When she promises to help Varian, she knowingly commits treason against her father because she believes that she's helping a friend who was begging for her aid. And even after everything Cass put her and her friends through in the third season, Rapunzel refused to give up on her. She swears very closely to promises, but... she doesn't always keep those promises when it comes to some people. At the beginning of the series, she promised Cass that she wouldn't tell anyone about Cass taking her out the night her hair grew back; it wasn't just a matter of a slap on the hand for Cass, she could've been sent away to a convent. But even with the potential for her new best friend to be taken away from her and sent somewhere where she'd be utterly miserable hanging over their heads, Rapunzel still breaks her promise to Cass and told Eugene the full story - despite the fact that it's been proven over and over again that Eugene can't keep a secret to save his life. She doesn't like keeping secrets from her boyfriend, and feels he deserves to know everything about her.

So honestly, it depends very much on who asked her to keep the secret and who would be hurt in the process. Rapunzel is fiercely loyal to her friends and her kingdom, and will do what she can to protect them... but when it comes to protecting many people, or being honest with the people she loves, sometimes some secrets that might put those things at risk have to be broken.

● Has your character ever gotten joy out of hurting others, physically or mentally? If they have, does it scare them?

Absolutely not! Rapunzel is a kind soul, and would never intentionally hurt someone or take joy in it. No matter how people hurt her, it's very difficult for Rapunzel to want to hurt them back - she'd rather understand them, to understand why they do what they do and the negativity that surrounds them. She reaches out for Gothel as Gothel falls to her death, despite all that the woman did to her, and she tries to reach out to Cassandra and Varian over and over, even when they seemingly reject her offers to try and repair their friendship. This isn't to say Rapunzel won't fight; even when it comes to her friends, Rapunzel won't back down in a fight, and will do her best to defend herself and her loved ones. She just doesn't push for fights, and clearly takes no joy in it, unless the person is clearly evil. She has no mercy for Zhan Tiri during the final battle, even when she more or less gets blown up through the union of the Sundrop and Moonstone, because Rapunzel knew she was an evil that had to be defeated.

That isn't to say that Rapunzel hasn't hurt others in more intimate ways. In those ways she has hurt people, her friends, both physically or emotionally. But she's horrified when she's confronted with what she's done, to the point where she has nightmares about how angry they were at her. She doesn't want to see the people she cares about hurting or upset, but because of her upbringing, Rapunzel doesn't always know the things she does or says hurt others until it's too late.

WRITING SAMPLES.

SAMPLES:

Network Sample

Log Sample

NOTES.

QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS: None!